Enterprise users are a studious bunch!

Attentive, engaged, industrious... members of Wolf Systems' Enterprise User Group got a taste of their student days this July when Warwick University’s Business Centre played host to the User Group meeting.

"Providing a unique combination of Wolf Systems' timber engineering design software with a complete management application, Enterprise has become integral to many of our customers' businesses," explains Paul Flounders, who organised the event. "In fact the business management tool is so powerful that it’s arguably used more frequently than some of our design software."

Incremental learnings

Since its first iteration as WMS in 2007, Enterprise has been developed year-on-year to meet users' changing requirements. "We wanted to ensure that major improvements to the software closely matched our customers' emerging business needs so rather than lecture to them on what we think Enterprise v3 should include, it was important that users should be very much part of the development process. Our User Group meetings provide the ideal forum to share ideas, learn from experiences and map out functionality updates."

In July, this meant a busy day of presentations, demonstrations and discussions as suggestions for Enterprise v3 were laid on the table. "True to form, many of our customers weren't shy in telling us their opinions and we were really pleased to receive not only positive comments about the forthcoming version, but also commitments from some to take part in testing to put Enterprise through its paces before its anticipated roll-out next year," says Paul.

Customer participation is key, as is feedback from a diversity of users, Paul goes on to explain. "Whilst customers are essentially doing the same thing, each company will tackle a task slightly differently. Getting together a wide-ranging User Group is paramount if we are to ensure that Enterprise handles the needs of all customers rather than a select few."

What's on the timetable?

Wolf plans to take Enterprise v3 out on the road to customers unable to make the User Group meeting. This will ensure that their opinions are heard and can be incorporated in the forthcoming release.

David Leaney, Managing Director is pleased that so many customers continue to devote their time to the User Group. "It's encouraging to see so many customers wanting to take part in the User Group and we welcome their proactive approach and input. I think everyone involved, including our own staff, saw the benefit in providing a forum for first-hand feedback for software development."

Attentive, engaged, industrious... members of Wolf Systems' Enterprise User Group got a taste of their student days this July when Warwick University's Business Centre played host to our User Group meeting.